journeys of the wandering heart
by ricetard
Summary: Hogwarts is our home. / gen, oneshot


She's not very pretty and she was never liked too much in her old school. Everyone said that she spoke too much; that she knew too much; that she kissed up to the teacher and had no friends. No one really liked her and weird things happened to her. (But it's okay, because her family loves her. Her family has always loves her.)

Then - the letter. And it explains so much. She stares at it and thinks that maybe, maybe she will be appreciated. Maybe she'll learn new things, and people will like it. She's excited to meet new people, make _friends_, learn about a world that she has never even dreamed to exist yet she believes in with the small shred of faith - and she's done it. She's found a home.

xxx

It's been hard to live with his family - what, with a overbearing mother and a demented sister and a foolish brother and an imprisoned father. He's always known magic and he knows that magic won't solve _everything_, but he's glad it solves some things. Muggles are helpless without it. He has never understood the importance of Muggles, anyways.

So he's glad when he goes to school - his _home_- he can get away from all this, and instead be surrounded by students and teachers who are astounded by his talents and capabilities, and he exceeds and enhances his magic. And even when he leaves, he feels that a little part of him will stay with the school, forever. It's where he's learned everything and put it all to good use, even when, in the future, he will try to do something wrong. His home is what sets his heart right.

Decades later, he comes back to his home and dies there as a peaceful old man.

xxx

She has love for many things - people, knowledge, adventure. She doesn't know too much about herself and she's okay with this, but then one day the boy in the other neighborhood comes to her and tells her more about herself, and she is delighted. She is enamored.

But magic is not all it seems, she realizes, when she finds that that boy has hurt her sister. And then he hurts her too, with spiteful words and beliefs that she thinks are disgusting. He used to be her friend, she thinks; he was the one who had taught her about this world, full of mysteries and miracles and charms.

She mustn't blame the world, though. It isn't its fault. This is who she is, despite what her sister says, despite what an old friend has done to ruin it for her, with customs that she can't really care any more for. She is with the magic, and the love that comes with it.

xxx

He's enthralled, in love with this world. Magic, he thinks. Magic is the answer to all of it. It explains who he is. It explains why he's _different._Magic is the answer the everything - to his loneliness, to his parentage. To his life.

He has always known he is different. He is more special than all the other children in the orphanage. He has a control - _magic_- that they do not have. How foolish it is, that there are rules about this magic. Why not flaunt it all? Why not show it all? Why not put these stupid Muggles, his father included, in their place and show the world who he really is?

And school. His home. He has always loved it - from the way it takes him away from everything that he's always hated, embracing him into the thrill of doing everything with magic. This is where he learns who he is. This is where he makes friends. This is where he starts to take control, to overcome the world, to overcome life. This is where it starts.

xxx

It's bigger here, bigger than his house. And deep down inside, even though he loves his family, he knows he's more comfortable here. Here, he's not surrounded by his family, seeing all his brothers who are older than him and the little sister his mother has always wanted. Here, he's not trapped in a tiny room and forced to listen to a ghoul rattling around in the attic. here, he's surrounded by scarlet drapes and warm fires and friends, smart, talented friends, who like him for who he is, and not because he's better than someone else.

xxx

She's used to her family, and her mother and father who have loved her so much, and then her father loving her even more when her mother passes away. She comforts her father and tells him it'll be okay, and even when she goes to school, she'll still be with him.

And she is. It's not very hard, because the kids at school don't really like her very much. But it's okay. She supposes that this is who she is seen by society, and sure she's made fun of and it makes her life a bit more difficult. But then she learns to live with it. This is not her home. Her home is with the people she knows who love her.

Then she makes friends, she _does_find people who love her, people who aren't her mother and father. And it's a bit strange, because she keeps acting like who she is - wearing radish earrings, bottlecap necklaces. And these friends, they stay with her. It really is very strange. Sometimes she forgets that her home isn't with just her father anymore, but with these new people, at school. With friends.

xxx

_School_, he thinks spitefully, what a joke. His father can teach him all the magic he wants, right? And his mother can provide him all the love, all the company, all the protection he needs. And his parents' friends are playmates enough. Why has he ever needed to go to school? But he goes anyways, just to make his father proud, and to carry on the family name into Slytherin.

Soon, though, he finds himself lost in this magical place. It's not like a school - not like he'd _know_, because he's never been to a school before - but there are secrets, and magic is much more dangerous than he's thought. He makes friends and enemies - oh, to make enemies - and he does what his father has always taught him. But as the years go on, he finds that all what his father has said is not true. That some of it is lies, and this school teaches him this. And sometimes he sort of hates the godforsaken building for doing this, and then he realizes how stupid he is for hating this stupid building. And he hates all the people inside and the world it's shown him, and how magic is as much of a privilege as not having magic is. He hides himself, wrapped up in pain and confusion and an enigma of what he thinks he loves.

xxx

Life is never easy for him. Being ordered around, kicked around, mistreated. He hears of others like him, but he doesn't think that even their Masters are as cruel as this.

Then - freedom. By the greatest wizard in the world. A taste of what life is like, not as something what he's supposed to be or what he should be, but what he _wants_to be. He's offered a job by the second greatest wizard in the world, and makes himself at home for his new Master.

This is better than anything else he has ever had, ever wanted and even if too much is offered, he'll be happy. He works, but with others like him, who may not understand him but are like him. He works for a number of people, making them happy in quiet. He works in a place that is large and warm, majestic and welcoming.

xxx

He's alone, so he watches the girl down the road. She's beautiful like a fire and magic comes out of her like a gift, and he is in love.

He's always been in love with magic.

He hates being around his father and his mother, who fight and argue and have no money. He is poor and dirty and he's been called awful by those who don't even know the beauty of magic, which makes him all the more awful. He sets his sights on the girl who's brighter than the sun, and manages to pull his way through the first several years of his life.

Then - school. This is where he belongs. This is where he can impress the girl, do magic all he wants, get away from the pathetic excuse that is his family. And even with the time to come, with his friendships with other wizards and his falling out with the witch, he doesn't forget that he wouldn't want to be anywhere else, but here.

xxx

Friends are hard to come by when you're with a family who hates you. You don't know anything other than what you've seen - you know the way your uncle yells at you and your cousin beats you and your aunt sends you this disgusting look, every day, like you're an insect waiting to be squashed. You're absolutely nothing, worthless, and you've never had a family.

When you turn eleven, strange things happen. Owls. Letters. Then a large man who treats you like an old son and tells you that you can get away from this awful life. He tells you of a different place, of a different world where no one will mistreat you. He tells you that you are special, that you are different, that you have _magic_. He tells you that there's a new school and place for you to learn about all of this, and he's here to take you away.

So you go.

And you make friends. And you meet people, people who are kind and admire you. You find a family that's as warm as a campfire and willing to do all it can to protect you, and you have best friends who understand you more than anyone else, and you have classmates and professors and mentors. You discover that the world is on your shoulders, but somehow, you feel that you can make it through with these people, people you love, beside you.

The school encases all of this, the school of witchcraft and wizardry, of magic. Of love and friendship and kindness. You have found your place in this world. You have found your home.


End file.
